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Australia could fall from the top echelon of world sport unless almost $100 million a year in extra funding is allocated for Olympic sports.
Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates made the dire prediction on Tuesday that Australia would struggle to be a top 10 nation at the London 2012 Olympics unless more money was given to high performance programs.
Calling upon a commitment to increase sports funding made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd prior to the Beijing Olympics last year, Coates wants the Federal Government to provide an additional $97.2 million per year to Olympic sports to ensure Australia remains a top five nation.
“With this money top five is still a reasonable target,” Coates said on Tuesday. “(Without the extra funding) holding a top 10 position would become very, very hard.
“It is quite amazing we held our position (in Beijing) with the funding we spent in the last Olympiad.
“The amounts currently due to be received by the sports will continue to put us at a significant disadvantage to our major competitors.
“The fact is since Sydney we have seen a decline in Olympic and Paralympic performance while other nations are improving.
“I think if the additional funding does not come it will be the start of a more accelerated decline in Olympic performance.”
Australia won a record 58 medals in Sydney, the number falling to 49 in Athens (2004) and to 46 in Beijing last year.
Not since Seoul in 1988 has Australia finished outside the top 10.
The AOC believe it will require 55 medals in London to finish in the top five of the medal tally with huge improvements expected from the likes of Japan, Italy, France and Ukraine.
Olympic sports currently receive $140.3 million per year but the AOC has produced a study which forecasts a need to increase this amount to $239.2 million in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics.
Australia’s current funding is less than half of the budgets for Great Britain ($330 million), Russia ($670 million), Germany ($315 million) and France ($300 million).
Sports federations were asked following the Beijing Olympics to estimate what was required to lift their own high performance programs to acceptable levels with the common belief that Australia’s programs had been in steady decline since the Sydney 2000 Games.
The result is a need for a $57.8 million increase to summer sports, $6 million to Paralympic programs and $27.3 million for winter sports.
Coates is optimistic the government will continue to support the Olympic team through the Australian Sports Commission despite the harsh current economic climate.
“We certainly got positive indications leading into the Games,” said Coates.
“I am positive on most of this because it is less than I thought it was going to be. I was anticipating a much bigger ask.
“It is not an irresponsible sum.
“We have been thorough and the figures are still a work in progress but we certainly acknowledge these are very very tough economic times and the government has got a more difficult job than it did previously.”
Coates argued any funding would be an investment in Australians and the sports industry.
“A large, large proportion of funding provided is going to be spent in Australia,” he said.
“It will continue to provide jobs in the industry of sport … it will continue to provide support to keep young Australians in sport.”
The AOC has no concerns of a shortfall in corporate sponsorship as they’ve negotiated deals spanning multiple Olympiads.
Summary of funding requests by Olympic sports
Current / Proposed
Summer Olympic sports $125.2m / $183m
Additional sports for 2016 $3.2m / $5.5m
Non-qualifying sports $0 / $3.8m
Paralympic sports $9.8m / $15.8m
Winter Olympic sports $2.1m / $29.4m
Total $140.3m / $239.2m(Source: Australian Olympic Committee)
Annual Olympic and Paralympic funding compared with competitors
Russia $670m
Great Britain $330m
Germany $315m
France $300m
Italy $215m
Australia $140m
Canada $117m
Japan $109m
Korea $106m(Note: Figures for USA and China unavailable. China believed to be in excess of $750m)